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Aureus - Augustus AVGVSTVS
| Issuer | Roman Empire (27 BC - 395 AD) |
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| Year | 18 BC - 17 BC |
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| Reference(s) | RIC I#125, OCRE#ric.1(2).aug.125, Calicó#164 |
| Obverse description | Bare head of Augustus facing right, rendered in fine Hellenistic portrait style with naturalistic curled hair and youthful idealized features. The portrait is set within a single incuse border, occupying the full field of the flan. No legend appears on the obverse of this issue, the entire face being devoted to the imperial effigy. The high-relief modeling and precise engraving reflect the accomplished die-cutting characteristic of the Augustan aurei of this period. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
This issue dates to the period immediately surrounding the Secular Games of 17 BC, a ritualized festival revived by Augustus after a gap of over a century to signal the dawn of a new age for Rome. The games were organized in part by the commission overseeing the mint, and the coinage of 18–17 BC reflects a deliberate propagandistic program tied directly to that moment — Augustus was reshaping not just the state but the calendar of Roman memory itself.
RIC I 125 is attributed to the Colonia Patricia mint in Spain, one of the traveling military mints that followed Augustan campaigns before being consolidated under tighter imperial control in the following decade.